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Called the police on a gut feeling... Got 2 people arrested!
11 years ago
Guy kept coming into the office asking if his reservation came though. I remember this same guy from earlier this week from trying to sell me a watch for $500. After he comes to the office 2 times asking to check into a reservation that doesn't exist, I call the cops and describe the guy to them.
The cops come and follow him to his room, find out who the room is registered to, get a key from me and go up to have a look. They're gone for a while and come back down with some lady in cuffs. They were doping and making counterfeits. The guy who kept coming down was not arrested and was allowed to leave with a small bag of personal stuff.
I told the cops that I'm guessing they were trying to brute force credit card information by making reservations and seeing if any of them went though.
The cops come and follow him to his room, find out who the room is registered to, get a key from me and go up to have a look. They're gone for a while and come back down with some lady in cuffs. They were doping and making counterfeits. The guy who kept coming down was not arrested and was allowed to leave with a small bag of personal stuff.
I told the cops that I'm guessing they were trying to brute force credit card information by making reservations and seeing if any of them went though.
Good thing that you reported it to the police though.
Over time, with experience at a certain location, you start to learn what's normal activity and what's unusual. It stands out from the crowd a LOT more.
I spend a majority of my time at work watching cameras at night. Sometimes, the really dumb criminals just make themselves completely obvious...
My favorite trick they use is turning their vehicle lights off at night as they drive around a brightly lit parking lot, as if that makes their vehicle invisible. It just catches my attention a lot faster. If they drive past entrances, other doors, and make a direct path behind buildings, towards storage containers and loading docks... I usually have one hand on the cameras and the other on the phone to call PD. I've caught a lot of theft this way.
One word of advice: Don't confront criminal activity. It sounds like that might be tough, since I take it you do a bit of customer service. However, if you have the option to go investigate what someone is doing and you truly believe already that what they might be doing is criminal in nature, just call PD. It sounds like you handled it perfectly. You're not armed, you're not trained for it, and already criminals know what they're doing is wrong. You don't have to go tell them. It puts you in unnecessary danger. It's best, if you spot it, to just observe and report. Let PD handle it. They know what to do. They are trained for it and are armed. The #1 thing I tell my guards is that a majority of all cases usually involve drugs of some sort. You never know if the person that you're confronting is high on drugs or not, but it's very probable, so it's just best to let the police investigate. It sounds like even your case involved drugs too.
Again, congrats! You did the right thing and handled it perfectly. Good gut instinct.
It's gotta feel good knowing you put a stop to what they were doing. You prevented other people from becoming victims to their scheme. You didn't just help your company but the local community as well.